Tom Petty Plots ‘Wildflower’ Reissue, Tour

Tom Petty has been reconnecting with his garage rock roots lately; his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch just released a new album, 2, and is currently on tour.

But next year, he’s looking to revisit a much different part of his career, as he’s planning to reissue 1994’s classic Wildflowers and tour to support it. The album was originally planned as a double album but was ultimately released as a single album. The reissue and the tour will address the tracks that didn’t make the original version.

“I want to take the Heartbreakers and whoever else I need to reproduce every sound in a big way,” he tells Rolling Stone. “That album was really about sound in a big way. I would like to go out there and perform the entire album as it was originally conceived with all of the songs.”

While Wildflowers was a solo album, two of the principal Heartbreakers — guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench, who are also members of Mudcrutch — played on the album. Petty supported Wildflowers with a Heartbreakers tour.

Regardless of how the album was billed, Benmont Tench told Radio.com that he regards it as a Hearbreakers record.

“I’m sure there’s a reason that Tom called it a solo album,” he told us. “Maybe it’s a mental state he was in, you’ll have to ask Tom. The fact is, it’s the first Heartbreakers album with the new drummer,” he says, referring to Steve Ferrone, who replaced founding drummer Stan Lynch, and who has been in the band ever since. “At the time, the idea wasn’t to replace Stan. Tom set out, I believe, to make a solo record, but very quickly we were all on it except for Stan. It’s a Heartbreakers record… It’s a really good record, I think it’s one of our best.” The album includes “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck Me” and “It’s Good To Be King.”

While Petty has historically been lukewarm on full album tours, he’s changed his mind in this case: “I’ve changed my mind because nobody has ever done something like this where you’re previewing the second part of a never-released album. How often does that happen? It’s old and new at the same time.”